After almost four decades as an attorney and director with NRDC, I am now serving as a "Senior Advisor" with the International Program. Since the 1970s, NRDC has recognized that the environment does not recognize national boundaries and now we know that we cannot achieve our strategic priorities without engaging in international fora and working in other key countries. What is also clear is that we need to adopt new approaches and take advantage of new technologies to make real progress on climate change and other global environmental challenges. I am very proud of what we been able to accomplish over the decades and looking forward to continuing to help strengthen NRDC’s global reach and capacity. When I am not trying to save the planet, I enjoy life in Washington, DC with my family and friends. I like to bike and hike and do photography.

Recent Posts

Last Saturday in Bonn, the head of the UN secretariat for the climate change treaty was remarkably optimistic at a dialogue midway through another painfully sluggish negotiating session. As 193 nations repeatedly bogged down in talks on a 90-page draft...continued→

In her final speech as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton spoke to the Council on Foreign Relations in January 2013 about the significant changes in the world that she has witnessed over the years. She talked about the new challenges,...continued→

There is no question that Sunday’s huge People’s Climate March in New York was historic reflecting demands from millions worldwide that our leaders take action now to deal with the climate crisis. Tomorrow the focus will shift to the UN...continued→

Mark Bittman’s recent New York Times OpEd “Let’s Reject the ‘Inevitable’” deserves the attention it is receiving. While agreeing with him on the critical importance of the People’s Climate March planned for Sunday and the call for rapid transformative change to deal with the climate crisis,...continued→

Last Sunday at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, Madeleine Albright was blunt in her assessment of our generation’s legacy to the class of 2014: What I’m saying, dear Graduate, is that the world is a mess. I’m sorry, but it’s...continued→

Cities have gotten increased attention in the on-going UN deliberations on a new set of global sustainable development goals, but too often one key dimension of sustainability is overlooked or underappreciated - equity. In this blog, reporter Sarah Glazer speaks...continued→

I can remember when “Agenda 21” was at the top of NRDC’s international agenda. In the run-up to the first Rio Earth Summit in 1992, we were actively involved in the final negotiations of Agenda 21 – a 351-page totally-voluntary...continued→

Millions of people living in the shantytowns of the developing world’s mega-cities will be among the most-vulnerable groups feeling the brunt of climate change in the coming decades, according to a just-released report from UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change....continued→

Matt Petersen, recently appointed as Chief Sustainability Officer for Los Angeles, has a perspective way beyond that city’s limits. In this interview with reporter Sarah Glazer, Petersen reflects on his earlier experiences responding to major natural disasters in New Orleans and...continued→

On January 31st, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon named former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as a Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change. This appointment reflects the growing recognition of the global impact of cities which, according to Bloomberg, account for "more...continued→

Mayors are showing real leadership on the planetary challenge of climate change while improving the quality of the life in their cities. Here is the next in the series of global-local blogs by reporter Sarah Glazer with an interview with...continued→

Recently, the severe air pollution in New Delhi, India, has been getting significant media attention. Yet New Delhi is far from alone. Hundreds of millions of people in cities around the world are choking on traffic, and local officials are feeling more...continued→

Could 2014 be the year that global aspirations and local actions are united? That’s one of the hopes for the meetings this week at the United Nations in New York of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, a...continued→

A year ago when the storm surge from Hurricane Sandy breached the banks of Manhattan and Queens, Ronald Jumeau was watching from a fourth floor window on Roosevelt Island, the narrow island in New York City’s East River. “So that’s...continued→

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to spend some very special August days on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, including some sightings of vacationing Presidents. This year I will not be traveling to the Vineyard, but wanted to...continued→

About

Switchboard is the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the nation’s most effective environmental group. For more about our work, including in-depth policy documents, action alerts and ways you can contribute, visit NRDC.org.